1638?

Speculating on the history of our Tour.

During one of our first visits to our Tour we noticed an inscription on the staircase which reads: NICOLLAS de MOLLES 1638.

At first I thought this might be the Tour’s architect as it’s often common for them to mark their oeuvres. But given the crude engraved nature of the tag, my father-in-law thinks it was probably just a bored inhabitant of the Tour who graffitied his name to pass time. There are also lots of other little crude engravings of crosses on the stairs (see bottom right above).

However, our friend Thomas had another theory that this part might be covered in a later cement and that the inscription was just a copy of an original inscription which is now hidden. So perhaps the inscription doesn’t date back to 1638 at all.

Who was this Nicollas de Molles? A builder, a servant, a monk, or millitaire? And does this date correspond to the building of the Tour or was it built many years before?

We will probably never know, but we can’t wait to see what other clues our Tour will provide.